Mumbai: 65% of Indian companies reported the highest impact from digitisation, as per the DBS and Financial Times (FT) Longitude survey.
The survey looked into corporate ambitions, successes, and concerns and interviewed more than 1,225 senior executives from Commercial and Finance/Treasury teams of organisations across 22 markets on their digital transformation journey.
Indian companies reported the highest impact from digitisation at 65% compared to the global average of 58%, revealed the study.
The survey reaffirms that India has firmly entered the digital age with the determination of an economic powerhouse, embodied by the government’s Digital India program and the rapid rise in internet users to 700 million.
The findings revealed that the most important goals of digital transformation are boosting efficiency and enriching customer experience (40% respectively). This is followed by improving collaboration across functions and teams (33%).
For Indian businesses, the research found that cultural elements that most support digital transformation are collaboration across functions (47%) and diversity in transformation teams (38%).
Sales and marketing (38%) and supply chain/procurement (21%) emerged as critical areas of an organisation that urgently needs digital transformation. The survey further enlightens the growing role that treasury and finance play in enabling change and innovation.
Indian businesses see cloud technology as essential to realising digital transformation within the treasury and finance function. The research shows that Indian companies (72%) are more likely to prioritise it than the global average of 67%.
Cloud migration is a crucial aspect of the transformation journey, for nearly three-quarters of the respondents. A positive sign for India’s cloud technology sector, which is expected to be worth $13.5 billion by 2026.
Respondents also showed confidence in advanced analytics (38%) and APIs (36%) as tools to transform treasury and finance. Within treasury, financial reporting (51%) is the top priority for digitalisation, followed by investments (45%) and procurement (34%).
It further reveals that strategic partnerships are likely to be a prominent feature of digital transformation, with banks (36%) and fintech partnerships (34%) being the most popular among Indian respondents.
“Companies in India recognise the benefits of digitisation. Indian companies have seen the highest transformation success among all the countries at 65% over the global average of 58%,” Divyesh Dalal, MD and Head – Global Transaction Services, DBS Bank India said about the DBS-FT Digital Transformation Survey findings.
“The survey mirrors our interactions with companies in India that are looking for increased efficiency and improved customer experience as the goals of digitisation, as well as their challenges while adopting emerging technologies,” added Dalal.
Although India’s digital transformation is accelerating, there are a few areas that need improvements including the professional skill gap and data privacy.
The skill gap (47%) and data privacy concerns (38%) are major roadblocks for organisations, as per the study findings. Given the significant outcomes accrued by companies through digitisation, working on these areas will be a key priority.